November 2023
I have been on the art islands before and have written extensively about it. However, there are a few new installations that deserve to be written about.
One of the more enjoyable is Narcissus Garden by Yayoi Kusama. This is part of a new area titled Valley Gallery, which encompasses another of my favorite pieces, Slag Buddha 88, which I had seen before.
Slag Buddha in the middle surrounded by Narcissus Garden
Slag Buddhaa 88 was created using slag from the Industrial waste of Teshima. It is a permanent installation created in 2006 by Tsuyaoshi Ozawa. Slag Buddha 88 belongs in the context of Ozawa’s “Jizoing” series, the artist’s debut work, and his B.A. thesis work. That work was comprised of photographs of jizo he created and placed in landscapes while traveling to various places as a student.
Using motifs from the statues of Buddha created and located in 88 places across Naoshima during the Edo period following the “Shikoku Pilgrimage of 88 Places,” Ozawa created statues out of slag yielded in the process of incineration of industrial waste that had been illegally dumped on Teshima.
Narcissus Gallery begins with a Tadao Anda building. As you approach the building, you are overwhelmed with these stainless steel orbs that draw you into the building.
This installation made its debut at the 33rd Venice Biennale in 1966. Kusama was not officially invited to exhibit. She says she received permission from the chairman of the Biennale Committee to stage 1,500 mass-produced plastic silver globes on the lawn outside the Italian Pavilion.
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